American Express has launched an offer for new and existing Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Ascend credit card holders to unlock an accelerated fast track to earning KrisFlyer Elite Gold status, when spending on the card over the next six months.
The promotion celebrates 25 years of the Amex – KrisFlyer co-brand partnership, but it sadly isn’t nearly as generous as last year’s offer, with a significant hike in the spend requirement this time round.
Fast track to Gold
Under this promotion, both new and existing Amex SIA KrisFlyer Ascend cardholders can achieve an upgrade to KrisFlyer Elite Gold status with:
- A minimum of S$16,000 spend between 1st February 2025 and 31st July 2025.
- A minimum of S$6,000 of the S$16,000+ spend must be on eligible Singapore Airlines and Scoot bookings.
- Eligible Singapore Airlines bookings are those originating from Singapore, paid in Singapore Dollars, and made directly with Singapore Airlines via singaporeair.com. This includes flight bookings paid via Pay Small, an instalment payment plan by American Express, the SingaporeAir mobile app, or over the phone.
- Eligible Scoot bookings are for flights originating from Singapore which are purchased in Singapore Dollars directly from Scoot Pte Ltd, through flyscoot.com and/or the Scoot mobile app.
Your KrisFlyer Elite Gold membership is valid for one year from the date of upgrade, after which standard requalification terms apply (50,000 Elite miles in a 12-month period).
The usual requirement for attaining KrisFlyer Elite Gold status with the Amex SIA KrisFlyer Ascend card is only open to new cardholders in their first year of membership.
In this case, a spend of at least S$15,000 is required, only on eligible purchases made at singaporeair.com, (including flight bookings paid via Pay Small, or the SingaporeAir mobile app), or with Scoot on flyscoot.com, within the first 12 months of card approval.
That makes this new deal, with reduced spend on SIA tickets and open to both new and existing cardholders, an improvement on the usual perk.
Existing elites are excluded
If your PPS Club or KrisFlyer Elite Gold membership ends after 1st August 2025, you will not be eligible for this promotion, even if the requisite spend is met (i.e. you cannot extend your status via this offer).
What if you upgraded before?
This offer is open to any new or existing KrisFlyer Ascend cardholders who are KrisFlyer Elite Silver or KrisFlyer members as of 1st August 2025.
Importantly, that means even if you used last year’s offer to upgrade to KrisFlyer Elite Gold via the Ascend card, and now find yourself relegated to Silver or basic KrisFlyer status as of 1st August 2025, you can participate in this year’s deal and upgrade your status again.
Eligible spend
Eligible spend for the purposes of this promotion refers to purchases of goods and services at American Express merchants, which are reflected on your monthly statement for your Amex SIA Ascend card, excluding any refunded, reversed, disputed, unauthorised, or fraudulent transactions.
Other excluded spend comprises the non-eligible purchases or transactions set out at go.amex/sgexclusions.
What does KrisFlyer Elite Gold get you?
KrisFlyer Elite Gold status gets you a host of benefits from priority check-in and additional baggage allowance through to lounge access, free Wi-Fi on SIA in Economy Class, and even some perks when ‘slumming it’ with low-cost subsidiary Scoot.
We’ve got a comprehensive rundown of the benefits you’ll receive as a KrisFlyer Elite Gold status holder in the following article.
While there are several perks for regular travellers, do remember the significant outlay this status upgrade entails.
Make sure you’ll make good use of these perks over 12 months before going ahead – good as it can be, it frankly isn’t worth it for infrequent travellers.
(Photo: Star Alliance)
S$150 eCapitaVoucher for the first 250 spenders
If you are among the first 250 Ascend cardholders who meet the S$16,000 spend criteria (including at least S$6,000 on SIA / Scoot tickets as defined above), you will be eligible to receive an additional gift.
- S$150 eCapitaVoucher
You will receive a redemption email from American Express (at the email address registered with your American Express account) by 31st October 2025 in this case.
Samsonite luggage gift for bigger spenders
If you are among the first 250 Ascend cardholders who spend S$20,000 or more on eligible purchases, including at least S$6,000 on SIA / Scoot tickets as defined above) during the promotion period, you’ll be entitled to an alternative gift.
- 28″ Samsonite luggage
Those who qualify for this gift will not be eligible for the S$150 eCapitaVoucher under the first 250 spenders tier outlined above (it’s one or the other).
As with the previous gift, you will receive a redemption email from American Express (at the email address registered with your American Express account) by 31st October 2025.
The 2024 deal was better
As you may recall, last year Amex ran a similar KrisFlyer Gold fast track deal as part of the programme’s 25th anniversary celebrations, which had much lower spend thresholds:
- A minimum of S$12,500 spend in four months.
- A minimum of S$2,500 of the S$12,500+ spend had to be on eligible Singapore Airlines bookings.
This latest deal (S$16,000 spend and S$6,000 spend respectively) hikes the total retail spend by 28%, and the SIA / Scoot spend by 140%, making it a much more expensive proposition that will likely appeal to far fewer of our readers.
The addition of spend on Scoot flights is a benefit this year, but that’s unlikely to help you too much now the threshold is S$6,000 spend compared to S$2,500!
Back in 2021, Amex even offered a fast track to KrisFlyer Elite Gold with S$5,000 retail spend, just S$300 of which had to be with the SIA Group, though admittedly that was in the throes of border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic!
Terms and conditions
Full terms and conditions for this accelerated status upgrade, including the free gift awards, are available here.
The KrisFlyer Amex Ascend was “enhanced” last year
Another factor to consider, especially if you are not an existing Ascend cardholder, is that the product had a significant refresh last year – and it wasn’t all good news!
This included:
- A hike in the (non-waivable) annual fee from S$343.35 to S$397.85
- A cut in the FCY earn rate from 2 mpd in June and December to the regular year-round rate of 1.2 mpd every month of the year, the same as for local spend
- A cut in the Grab earn rate from 3.2 mpd to 2 mpd
- A removal of the four annual SATS / Plaza Premium lounge access vouchers
- A removal of the double KrisFlyer miles accrual voucher
On the plus side, the card still offers a selected Hilton hotel stay each year, while Scoot flight spend now earns 2 mpd year-round and also counts towards the (unchanged) KrisFlyer Elite Gold fast track, as you can see above during this temporary enhanced deal.
Overall though, these changes were roundly seen as negative and this card isn’t one we rank highly among miles-earning options in Singapore.
Summary
Between 1st February 2025 and 31st July 2025, both new and existing Amex SIA KrisFlyer Ascend cardholders can unlock KrisFlyer Elite Gold status with S$16,000 spend, including S$6,000 spend on Singapore Airlines and/or Scoot tickets.
That’s an improvement on the usual S$15,000 spend needed purely on Singapore Airlines in the first membership year, and so represents an opportunity for a relatively easy status upgrade, even as an existing cardholder, provided you have this kind of spend coming up.
Unfortunately, as we mentioned above, this fast track deal is significantly poorer than the one that ran last year, which required only S$12,500 total spend, of which a much lower S$2,500 threshold on Singapore Airlines flight tickets was needed.
While there are many perks to the KrisFlyer Elite Gold tier for regular travellers, at the same time it’s nothing too ground breaking if you only travel infrequently – and not necessarily on a Star Alliance carrier – so do weigh up all the benefits first, before deciding if it’s worth proceeding with this rather expensive deal.
(Cover Photo: Singapore Airlines)